Russia says 'skull with hole' only evidence of Hitler's suicide

Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009, 15:32 [IST]

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London, Dec. 9 (ANI): Discarding claims made by American scientists, Russia has insisted that a skull fragment with a bullet hole at the national archive is that of Adolf Hitler, and it is the "only documentary evidence" of the Nazi leader's suicide.

Earlier, American scientists who tested DNA of the skull, had claimed that the skull with a hole kept at the Russian archives was actually of a woman aged 40.

But the chief archivist at the Federal Security Service in Moscow repeated Russia's assurances that the skull, and a jaw bone, were the "only documentary evidence" of the Nazi leader's death despite the claims, in a United States documentary.

"Hitler's jaw is at the FSB archives, the fragment of skull at the State Archive. These materials are the only documentary evidence of Hitler's death," said Lieutenant-General Vasily Khristoforov, the chief archivist at the federal security service.

The four-inch skull fragment has a hole where a bullet reportedly passed through Hitler's left temple when he shot himself.

Kept in Russia's state archive, it was put on public display in 2000. Jawbones, said to be confirmed as Hitler's through dental records, are kept at the federal security service archive but have not been put on show, nor has any DNA confirmation of their veracity been offered, The Telegraph reports.

Russia maintains that these two artefacts prove Soviet troops found Hitler's body in the ruins of Berlin in 1945 and that he died on April 30 when he shot himself just after taking cyanide.

Conspiracy theories suggest that Hitler did not die in 1945 but survived and fled to South America or elsewhere and that the skull is not genuine.

A History Channel documentary programme broadcast in the United States earlier this year claimed the skull fragment belongs to a woman under 40 and not Hitler, who was 56 when he died. (ANI)